This is a conversation that started when someone mentioned the routine questions received on social media when the answers are obviously on the website. This took me by surprise as my first reaction is always to tweet/ask on social media as often I’m on my phone and don’t want to waste data clicking away on websites (especially bespoke ones where Contact Me isn’t where you find the address but a lovely form).

What I did find funny was the fact that many of the social media people were annoyed by the same questions: directions, open times, cost but I wonder how many took the time to do something to streamline the information. Maybe a pinned tweet for half term, link directing them to Most Asked Questions on their bio instead of a link to their next exhibition, etc.

I started thinking more about it and took to twitter for my first ever poll and as you can see from the results, I’m in the minority!

What is your opinion on this?

NHS Hackday has been going for 3 years but this was their 12th hack. The concept is simple enough: bring people together that care about the NHS and want to make changes. Like most hacks, the difficulty is finding the balance of techy and developers vs people who have ideas.

As Open Community Lab is trying to expand outside of a museum focus (but still have our museum remixes), Mark Macleod and I went along to learn. This was the first time I was a participant and what an eye opener!

The format is similar:

You mingle

You pitch (if you want to)

You decide what team you want to be on

You work your butt off all weekend to create something.

That was the easy part. What I didn’t appreciate was the amount of NHS staff that would come with very specific issues they deal with on a daily basis and changes they want to make but don’t know how to go about it. Without a medical background (other than a frequent visitor due to being blessed with clumsiness) I thought I’d be out of my depth. However, each prototype or team needs a person that can help ground the ideas with ‘people experience’.

CultureThemes

CultureThemes.com
CultureThemes runs a hashtag on social media (Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) once a month to promote and engage with museums and visitors.

MuseumCamp

MuseumCamp
An unconference for people interested, working, want to work or who like to visit museums, art galleries and cultural venues. It’s a cakefest.

MuseumNext

MuseumNext 2018
MuseumNext is a global conference on the future of museums. Since 2009 it has acted as a platform for showcasing best practice today to shine a light on the museum of tomorrow. Our Museum Conferences have acted as a catalyst for change within the museum